Browser History
by HopeCoppice
Summary: In which Bertrand is surprisingly technologically adept. Slash.


**Sorry I've been AWOL, my internet was unfortunately disconnected. Did you miss me?**

**I got my first ever negative review today; it made me grin. Thanks, Anon. Seriously, I feel like part of the site now!  
**

**I own nothing but the plot. Any filching of actual usernames is entirely unintentional. There's a sequel of sorts to this - 'Contacts' - which I'm uploading now too as an apology for not being around :)  
**

"Did you want something, Bertrand?" Vlad huffed. His tutor had pulled him aside after dinner but had, as yet, failed to give any indication as to why. "'Cos I've got homework to do, if we're not training..." Bertrand seemed unusually reluctant to speak, and Vlad was left to make his own deductions. "...Okay, what have I done?"

Bertrand sighed. "Your father caught me in the IT room the other day, checking my emails." You could have knocked the Chosen One down with a feather.  
"_You_ get _emails_?"  
"Yes. I have contacts all over the world; I don't like to be out of the loop. Email is the quickest way to communicate. Anyway, he asked me to check if anyone _else_ in the school was accessing anything he should know about. And, as your Regent..." Bertrand seemed irritable, but Vlad was impatient; he really _did_ have work to do and some sleep would be nice.  
"He gets to boss you around, yeah, I know. Is this going somewhere?"  
"I found your browser history, Vlad. Is there anything you'd like to discuss?"  
"Not with you."  
Bertrand raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Don't you trust me?"  
"Oh, of course," Vlad mustered as much sarcasm as he could and sent it his teacher's way. "you've _never_ betrayed me."

It was a low blow, but Bertrand took it in his stride.  
"Be that as it may, it's my duty as your tutor to make sure you're getting any support you need, or inform your father if you need something else." No matter how casually he said it, they both knew that was a threat. Vlad glared at him for a moment, but staring down Bertrand was never really an option. It was if he could just choose not to have eyelids.  
"...Fine, we'll talk. What exactly are you referring to?" He almost managed to keep the note of anxiety out of his voice. If Bertrand noticed it, he didn't comment.

"Well, I found the WikiHow pages you'd looked up, to start with." He paused for a moment. "I didn't know you were questioning-"  
"Yeah, well, I'm not questioning anything anymore, so you can stop worrying. I know. It's why Erin and I split up, but she doesn't know the reason yet. And Dad's gonna be angry, but I can't help it. I just... need some time to work out how to tell him." Bertrand nodded.

_How To Tell If You're In Love  
How To Tell If You're Gay  
How To Come Out To Your Family  
How To Tell If You Like Guys  
How To Tell If You Like Girls  
How To Tell If You're Gay  
How To Tell If He's Gay  
How To Tell If You're Gay  
How To Break Up With Someone Nicely  
There are no search results for 'How To Break Up With Someone You Live With'_

"So, did you conclude...?" Vlad sighed. Bertrand clearly wasn't going to just leave it be._  
_"I'm pretty sure I'm gay, yeah." As he said it, he seemed to relax slightly, like a weight had been lifted. "And I'm alright with that. It took some thinking about but really, it makes sense of a lot of things."  
Bertrand nodded, frowning slightly. "Robin?"  
Vlad shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe a little."

_ VampireGeek Robin? That you? It's Vlad Count, from Stokely. Remember me? Just thought I'd look you up, check in.  
VladC Vlad! Long time no see, mate. Where did you disappear to, I thought you were dead.  
VampireGeek Just had to move on, Dad got work somewhere else. Not dead exactly!  
VladC Yeah. Well, could've called, but great to hear from you now. What's going on?  
VampireGeek Not much, dealing with some stuff and wanted a friendly ear.  
VladC Sounds serious, you OK?  
VampireGeek. Yeah, I think I am actually. What have you been up to since I saw you?  
VladC This and that, new vampire film out looks pretty good. You coming near Stokely soon? We could go.  
VladC Vlad? You offline?  
VladC Yeah, just... reply when you're back, or whatever._

"I suppose you know I got back in touch." Bertrand said nothing, which of course meant he did. "And he said we should hang out, and... yeah, it freaked me out a bit. But I don't fancy him or anything. It would just be weird, 'cos of the mind wipe. Besides, I'm not going back to Stokely."  
At that, Bertrand did look surprised. "It's not h-? I mean... so then there's the dating site. Do you really think that was a good idea?"  
Vlad rolled his eyes. "I didn't even put a picture up – for obvious reasons – or my real name. Lied about my age and everything, so you can't complain. One of the WikiHow articles just said that joining something like Gaydar and having a look around might help me work out if I found guys attractive. So I did."

_**Vlad Revedere** (No photo)  
Gaydar Member  
Age: 20  
Likes: Night time, vegetarianism, sparring, men in uniform.  
Dislikes: Flying, pressure.  
Looking For: Just Looking._

"Judging by your list of 'likes', you found _someone_ attractive on there. Did you contact anyone?"  
"What? No, there were attractive guys on there, sure, but I didn't really fancy any of them." Vlad brushed off his tutor's concern. "Anything else private of mine that you want to talk about?" Bertrand frowned, staring off into the middle distance for a moment before meeting Vlad's gaze.  
"Why didn't you come and talk to me about all this? Is it really because of what happened with Sethius?"

The Chosen One blinked. "Is that what all this is about? Me not running to you with every problem? Look, what I said earlier was harsh. I don't blame you for what happened with Sethius. I just couldn't talk to you about this, that's all. I didn't talk to anybody about it, it's not personal."  
His tutor's eyes were fixed on a point just over Vlad's right shoulder. "You talked to strangers online."

_Yahoo! Answers  
Home All Categories Family & Relationships Other - Family & Relationships Open Question  
**COGHV51:** So this is kind of a long post but I really need some advice and I don't know who else to talk to. I'm hoping you can help me, internet.  
I'm about to turn 18, and I have a tutor helping me with some A-level stuff, and some self defence on the side. He's not an official tutor or anything, he just helps me out and my Dad lets him stay with us in return. He's not that much older than me, really. Anyway, lately I realised I really fancy him. And he seems to understand me more than, for example, my girlfriend, who I really need to break up with because I'm pretty sure I'm gay.  
This tutor... well, once I turn 18 I don't know how long he'll stick around or what's going to happen, and I really want to know if we could have some kind of a relationship, you know. I have no idea if he even likes guys – I have no idea if he likes anyone, to be honest, he's a bit of a workaholic – but he's driving me mad. He's really, really attractive and I've had to avoid sparring practice for weeks because it just gets embarrassing... OK I've gone off-topic.  
Basically... what do you think I should do? Do I ask him out, or tell him how I feel or whatever... or ignore these feelings and hope they go away?_

**AllergicToSunlight:** I have a girlfriend too and I think I might be gay. How can you tell if you really are or if it's just that she's not that hot? (-15 votes)

**SlytherclawNerd:** I dunno, if he's your teacher that's pretty dodgy... I suppose if it's not official it could be OK, but if he's staying with you be careful cos it might get awkward if he's not into you. Good luck! (+13 votes)

**BakerStreetDozen:** How much older are we talking? Cos a couple of years maybe, but you're pretty young to have a crush on someone too much older. And this is probably just a crush, so make sure he knows that if you do tell him. (+9 votes)

**BeamMeUpDoctor:** There are laws against teachers dating students. Don't do it. Sorry to be harsh but you're just gonna have to get over it. (+3 votes)

**EverythingYouEver:** Go for it. Screw all that other stuff, if you like him, you should tell him – before you get caught out sparring – and then at least you'll know. (+2 votes)

Vlad frowned for a moment, but then comprehension dawned and his eyes widened. "You saw my Yahoo! Answers question?"  
Bertrand nodded. "AllergicToSunlight probably wasn't the best choice of username if you were trying to hide."

The younger vampire stared at him. "You thought that comment was about me and Erin? I'd never say something like that, I even made an extra account so I could vote it down twice."  
"But you did visit that pa- did you say your _question_?" The Chosen One winced, nodding, and his tutor continued. "But that was the only one you visited- oh." He backed a few steps before turning and taking one more, refusing to look round. "Me?"

Vlad nodded before realising that, contrary to popular belief, Bertrand _didn't_ have eyes in the back of his head. "Uh... yeah. I wasn't going to say anything. I know you won't... but yeah. I dunno, maybe it'll go away. Which... is what I'm going to do right now." He turned and ran for the door.

Bertrand stood for a moment, processing what he'd learned. With hindsight, it all made a lot of sense. The more he thought about it, the more he realised he should have seen it coming. _COGHV... men in uniform... How To Tell If He's Gay... _the signs had been there, but he didn't have a sufficiently inflated ego to put two and two together. He turned back but Vlad had already gone.

That night in the IT lab, Vlad checked carefully for signs of his father before carefully deleting his browser history, one page at a time. He glanced at his Gaydar profile – 16 new messages, and these people knew nothing about him – before deactivating it, then deleted the History link and clicked on the next one.

_Yahoo! Answers  
Home All Categories Family & Relationships Other - Family & Relationships Open Question  
**COGHV51:** So this is kind of a long post but I really need some advice and I don't know who else to talk to. I'm hoping you can help me, internet.  
I'm about to turn 18, and I have a tutor helping me with some A-level stuff, and some self defence on the side. He's not an official tutor or anything, he just helps me out and my Dad lets him stay with us in return. He's not that much older than me, really. Anyway, lately I realised I really fancy him. And he seems to understand me more than, for example, my girlfriend, who I really need to break up with because I'm pretty sure I'm gay.  
This tutor... well, once I turn 18 I don't know how long he'll stick around or what's going to happen, and I really want to know if we could have some kind of a relationship, you know. I have no idea if he even likes guys – I have no idea if he likes anyone, to be honest, he's a bit of a workaholic – but he's driving me mad. He's really, really attractive and I've had to avoid sparring practice for weeks because it just gets embarrassing... OK I've gone off-topic.  
Basically... what do you think I should do? Do I ask him out, or tell him how I feel or whatever... or ignore these feelings and hope they go away?_

**AllergicToSunlight:** I have a girlfriend too and I think I might be gay. How can you tell if you really are or if it's just that she's not that hot? (-15 votes)

**SlytherclawNerd:** I dunno, if he's your teacher that's pretty dodgy... I suppose if it's not official it could be OK, but if he's staying with you be careful cos it might get awkward if he's not into you. Good luck! (+13 votes)

**BakerStreetDozen:** How much older are we talking? Cos a couple of years maybe, but you're pretty young to have a crush on someone too much older. And this is probably just a crush, so make sure he knows that if you do tell him. (+9 votes)

**BeamMeUpDoctor:** There are laws against teachers dating students. Don't do it. Sorry to be harsh but you're just gonna have to get over it. (+3 votes)

**EverythingYouEver:** Go for it. Screw all that other stuff, if you like him, you should tell him – before you get caught out sparring – and then at least you'll know. (+2 votes)

**InTooDeep: **He understands your dilemma. After all, you two can't be together according to most of the world, and he's used to following the rules. He's never really dealt with feelings before; they were unhelpful to him. And then there was you, and the only way to stay near you was the thing that was going to keep you apart more than anything. The age difference, you might have been able to deal with, but he's in a position of authority over you – although that's a complicated point, because you have power over him too – and that would be hard for people to accept. But he didn't think you wanted him, especially when you started avoiding his sparring matches.  
He'll probably be in the room with the punch bag when you read this, if you want to finish that conversation you left off earlier. (0 votes)

Vlad read the new comment. Then he read it again. He shut down the computer and half-ran down to the training room. Sure enough, Bertrand was waiting for him, looking anxious. He didn't need to be.

The Chosen One threw himself at his tutor, crushing their lips together before he could lose his nerve. He pulled back almost immediately, but Bertrand didn't seem angry so he leaned back in, resting his head against the older vampire's shoulder.

"We'll work something out."


End file.
